Ladybird Believes US Corporations Are Stealing Iraqi Oil Money

Ladybird asks:

Iraq is exporting the same amount oil now like under Saddam, the price of oil is double, no UN stealing or obstruction, no reparation, no army, no rebuilding, people unemployed so no salaries, ...yet we do not see evidence of this Iraqi’s oil money

Look, there seems to be a case that the US has not taken anywhere close to sufficient oversight of moneys being spent in Iraq. And some of that money is the money coming from Iraqi oil revenue.

However, (maybe I'm wrong but) I think I see where she is going with this. This is a subtle and totally fantastic passage to the old War For Oil canard.

1. One of the ways that Saddam was running the economy of Iraq into the ground in order to hold on to his power is that he provided gasoline to Iraqis at the impossibly low rate of FIVE CENTS PER GALLON. For those of you on the metric system, Americans (with federal, state, and local taxes) were paying over TWO DOLLARS a gallon (more than 40 times as much).
   
   The MNF wanted to avoid sticker shock for the Iraqis so they've been subsidizing the price of gasoline since the invasion. That's where some the Oil money (and reconstruction money) has gone.
   
   The IPG has been slowly increasing the price to market levels. I'm not going to bother finding the news article here's an anti-war site that repeats an AP story on it.
   
   
2. There has been obstruction. Its called Terrorism. Iraqis are the primary perpetrators of it (especially the Sunni Arabs but the Shiia and even some Kurds have been involved).
   
   
3. There has been rebuilding. You've documented some of it. Sewage lines, power to regions of Iraq south of Baghdad that weren't getting it before, the re-flooding of the Marsh Arabs' lands, the training of policemen, bridges rebuilt, Fallujah to be rebuilt, etc, etc.
   
   
4. There are people unemployed but there certainly are salaries being paid as well.
   
   
5. There is an army, its called the ING and they are facing constant dangers in just enlisting. They need better armor but apparently the average soldier is still better armed and trained than in Saddam's days.
   
   
6. Some of the lackadaisical methods for handling money are due to the desire to permit commanding officers to disburse it quickly at their own discretion.

Both the US and Iraqi citizens want their money to be spent efficiently, but lets be reasonable here.